US varsity coach denies he is a paedophile

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University assistant football coach charged with child sex abuse, said yesterday he is not a paedophile, but admitted he showered with young boys.

In a full-court media press across two television networks, Sandusky and his attorney, Joe Amendola, said they have answers for all 40 charges that Pennsylvania prosecutors have levelled.

“I am innocent of those charges,” Sandusky (picture) told NBC’s Bob Costas in a telephone interview with the television network yesterday.

'Sex gang groomed girls of 13': Asian men accused of luring teens and turning them into prostitutes

A gang of Asian men went on trial yesterday accused of a sickening catalogue of child prostitution offences against vulnerable teenage girls as young as 13.

The nine – six are married and one is a grandfather – face 55 charges, including inciting child prostitution, grooming and rape between 2007 and 2009.

The girls – who cannot be named for legal reasons – were said to have received cash, alcohol, drugs, meals and mobile phone credit in exchange for sex with some of the defendants.

Three of the men – Ahdel Ali, 23, his brother Mubarek Ali, 28, and Tanveer Ahmed, 39 – allegedly acted as ‘pimps’, passing two of the young girls among their friends and using them as sexual commodities.

Mubarek Ali is also accused of trafficking one of the girls, while Abdul Rouf, 34, and Mohammed Younis, 59, are accused of using their homes as brothels for child prostitution.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said: ‘The Crown say that the men in the dock variously trafficked, raped or sexually abused girls both over and under the age of 16 years over a considerable period of time.

‘These men ensnared these girls. They had cars, jobs and money which gave them both freedom and power. They enticed the girls, groomed the girls and then exploited them either for their own sexual gratification or for money.’

 Accused: Mohammed Islam Choudhrey (L) and Noshad Hussain are among the defendants facing trial at Stafford Crown Court

 Also accused: Mohammed Ali Sultan, left, and Marhoof Khan are on trial for sex offences

 Brothels: Defendants Mohammed Yunis, left, and Abdul Rouf are accused of using their homes for child prostitution

'Pimp': Tanveer Ahmed Tanveer Ahmed, 39, allegedly passed two of the young girls among his friends

Miss Gould told Stafford Crown Court that the case was ‘not about race, religion, colour or creed’.

She said some of the seven alleged victims came from troubled backgrounds and their low self-esteem made them ‘highly vulnerable’ to the attentions of the men.

She added: ‘They do not value themselves and therefore have no expectation that they will be valued by others.

'Accordingly when they receive attention from others, particularly what they perhaps perceive to be somewhat exotic older males with money and cars, they soak it up, believing themselves to be the objects of genuine emotions and affections.

‘They believed themselves, and may still believe themselves, to be loved by and in love with some of these men.’

She said the alleged abusers would contact their victims by computer and mobile telephones ‘out of sight, sounds and control of even the most wary parent’.

Some of the girls first met the men in a churchyard in Telford, Shropshire, which had become a gathering place for ‘young Asian males’ who would smoke and drink there.

The court heard the Ali brothers would regularly present one of the girls for other men to have sex with. She was 16 at the time and didn’t realise at first that she was being sold for sex, Miss Gould added.

Men would pay between £20 and £40 and would either hand the money to her ‘pimps’ or pay her. She would then hand the money to them in exchange for mobile phone top-ups.

At one stage, she was 14 weeks pregnant but Mubarek Ali continued to sell her for sex, the jury heard. It is not known what happened to the baby.

After teachers and parents raised fears that the girls were being sexually abused, a police investigation named Operation Chalice began.

In December 2009, officers arrested most of the defendants and charged them with various offences related to child prostitution.

The men on trial – who all used Western nicknames – are Ahdel Ali, Mubarek Ali, Mohammed Ali Sultan, 24, Tanveer Ahmed, Mahroof Khan, 33, Noshad Hussain, 21, Mohammed Islam Choudhrey, 52, Mohammed Younis and Abdul Rouf.

They deny all charges. The trial continues.

Extensive operation: The trial, which is expected to last for several months, is taking place at Stafford Crown Court

Nursery worker, 20, admits horrifying rape of toddler in his care and 45 other sex charges

A paedophile nursery worker pleaded guilty today to raping a toddler in his care and a string of offences linked to the online grooming of more than 20 other girls.

Paul Wilson admitted two counts of oral rape of a girl aged two or three years old.

He also pleaded guilty to a further 45 charges of making and distributing indecent images and inciting youngsters to engage in sexual activity on the internet.

The 20-year-old, of Newbold Croft, Nechells, Birmingham, was charged with rape in January after his arrest on suspicion of child abuse prompted an investigation into his employment at the nearby Little Stars Nursery.

During an earlier hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on April 7, a district judge was told the grooming charges related to a total of 22 girls aged between 12 and 15.

Marni Chimba, prosecuting, told the lower court Wilson used multiple identities to befriend the girls on chatlogs and social networking sites, even pretending sometimes to be a previous victim.

The prosecutor said: 'Some of the aliases were female names and he also pretended to be the complainants, encouraging others to send their movies to him.'

Miss Chimba said some of the victims were directed to expose themselves using webcams. Others were filmed and recorded performing and taking part in sexual acts.

Wilson also distributed indecent images and threatened some of the children that he would show images he had already captured to their friends or parents.

Worker: Wilson worked at the Little Stars Nursery in Birmingham where he admitted orally raping the youngster.Rapist: Male nursery worker Paul Wilson admitted attacking a toddler in his care

Scene of the abuse: Little Stars Nursery in Nechells, Birmingham, where Wilson worked as an assistant

Two counts of oral rape: Paedophile Paul Wilson

One victim said she felt shocked, violated and ashamed.

The girl, who cannot be named, also disclosed her 'pure hatred' for Wilson who, after pressuring her into exposing herself via a webcam, threatened to distribute the images if she refused to follow his orders.

Her mother warned other parents to monitor their children's internet use more closely, saying: 'You think they are on sites, safe, just talking to their friends, but there are outsiders who will latch on and pretend to be their friends and take them for what they want.'

Wilson was warned today by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court that he was facing an indeterminate jail sentence.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans, Wilson stood with his right arm folded across his chest as he pleaded guilty to a total of 47 charges on a 50-count indictment.

It took the clerk more than 30 minutes to put the details of the charges to the unshaven nursery assistant, who looked downwards for most of the hearing, only raising his head to enter each individual plea.

Remanding Wilson in custody, Recorder of Birmingham Judge William Davis QC said it was highly likely that an indeterminate life sentence would be imposed when the offender is sentenced by a different judge in July.

'The public have to be protected from you,' Judge Davis said.

'It is almost inevitable that there will be what is called an indeterminate sentence.'

Wilson is the second nursery worker to be convicted of child sex attacks in recent years.

Vanessa George is serving an indeterminate jail term after sparking nationwide outrage for abusing toddlers and taking photos at Little Ted's nursery, in Plymouth.

George, formerly of Douglass Road, Efford, Plymouth, was groomed as part of a major paedophile gang, along with three other women, by IT consultant Colin Blanchard.

Blanchard, formerly of Yea Fold, Rochdale, was told by a judge he may never leave jail for his "deep-rooted and long-standing" sexual abuses.

Undercover beauty queen aged 10: A mother and daughter go behind the scenes at one of the U.S.-style child beauty pageants spreading over Britain

Sunday mornings usually find me reading the papers in bed, eating pancakes with my children or taking the dog for a walk.

Today, however, I am standing in a hotel ladies’ toilet with my ten-year-old daughter, trying to prise her feet into a pair of ridiculously strappy high-heeled shoes.

‘Ow, Mummy, that HURTS,’ Annie protests loudly, attracting a smug glance from another mother who is viciously sticking curling pins into the hair — and occasionally the head — of her silent, uncomplaining daughter.

Outside, in a vast conference room, chaos is brewing. Girls as young as three are being coaxed into strappy dresses and adorned with body glitter, as their mothers — all tight white jeans, manicured nails and enough bling to accessorise the whole of Essex — fight for wall sockets to plug in hair straighteners.

Welcome to the UK Cinderella Beauty Pageant at the decidedly unglamorous Ramada Hotel in Ealing, West London, a stone’s throw from the North Circular.

This is the latest event in a disturbing trend that is fast gaining ground in the UK and could soon be taking place in a three-star hotel near you.

Unsurprisingly, this pageant originated in America 36 years ago. It was launched here two years ago by former model Diana Hare.

Today, there are 24 contestants, ranging in age from three to 16. Their sights are set firmly on Las Vegas, since that is where one winner and her posse of family hangers-on will be heading to compete in a ‘sister’ pageant.

 Inspiration: The formal wear round brings out gowns akin to those favoured by Katie Price

 Dressed to impress: Shona Sibary and her ten-year-old daughter Annie in her pageant outfit

Annie is a tomboy at heart and thinks the whole thing is pretty stupid

Frightening: One mother in California gives her eight-year-old daughter Botox all in the name of beauty pageant success

Second and third place runners-up receive a flimsy Made In Taiwan tiara and a trophy so tacky I doubt that even the pushiest of mothers would dare to display it on their mantelpiece.

The rest, who have all forked out a £195 registration fee to be here today, will receive nothing. Except, perhaps, a salutary lesson in how not to spend a Sunday.

Child beauty pageants are big business in America, with little girls — some only just out of nappies — dressing in disturbingly mature outfits to be paraded in front of judges. The over-sexualisation of these young girls has caused huge controversy worldwide.

So, you might rightfully ask, why have I brought my own daughter along to compete in one of these events? We are here undercover to find out what goes on behind the scenes of a children’s beauty pageant and to try to understand why a growing number of British mothers see them as little more than harmless fun.

Our investigation actually began last October when Annie attended a previous heat and — to my horror and her bemusement — came second, automatically qualifying her for this final round.

(I later discovered, however, that any parent can fork out the cash to enter their child into the final, which makes a total mockery of the previous competition.)

Annie understands she isn’t being entered seriously; that it’s just for my work. Luckily, she has watched America’s Next Top Model enough times to know the drill and is fascinated by the fact that children her age are allowed to wear lipstick and false eyelashes.

Thankfully, though, Annie is a tomboy at heart and thinks the whole thing is pretty stupid.

The website for the contest claims the emphasis of the pageant is not physical beauty but ‘the beautiful inner person that should reside in everyone — without the designer dresses and diamonds’.

If anyone in this room here today is bothered about inner self–development, I’ll eat my long-lash mascara. There’s enough make-up in one room alone to keep the female cast of The Only Way Is Essex going for an entire series. Every little girl here has at least three suitcases (pink, naturally) stuffed with outfits, hair accessories, shoes and jewellery.

As I watch my daughter unpack her one bag, bravely shrugging off incredulous stares from the others, I worry — and not for the first time — about the ethics of what I’m asking her to do.

Annie is competing in the Miss UK Cinderella category for girls aged six to 10. There are three other categories — the most shocking being the one for girls aged three to six. There’s one for those aged 10 to 13, and another for 13 upwards.

Contestants are required to wear three outfits, culminating in a ‘formal’ dress (akin to Katie Price’s pink meringue wedding gown) accessorised with shoes, diamante-studded hair pieces and Swarovski crystals.

It’s a day out that can cost upwards of £1,000. Some parents have travelled from far-flung corners of the U.K.; but the real cost is the outfits.

Many mothers have shipped their daughters’ dresses over from America, homeland of OTT, and paid anything between £200 and £300 for them. Add to that the cost of entry, two other outfits — one for the talent section and one casual — shoes, accessories, tiaras and hairpieces and you’re looking at a very expensive hobby indeed.

I’ve had a team talk with Annie and we have agreed that while it’s important she doesn’t stand out too much during the pageant, she will be wearing a borrowed dress, clothes from her own wardrobe and a tiara from our dressing-up box.

My one concession is to allow her to be made up — but I can’t help feeling more than a little disturbed at the sight of my pre-pubescent daughter with blusher on her cheeks, and wearing false eyelashes and lipstick.

The three judges take their seats as Diana Hare makes a little speech about how the Cinderella Pageant is different from all the other pageants because it focuses on ‘learning, being yourself and being happy’.

As I look at Annie, standing in heels and waiting nervously in the wings, it occurs to me that all my daughter has learnt this morning is how to apply self-tanning lotion to her legs without streaking around the ankles. And I know, for a fact, she’d be happier outside in the fresh air, on her bike or climbing a tree.

But all around me the other mothers are lapping it up — nodding and agreeing among themselves that it’s a wonderful thing they’re doing for their daughters.

A woman sitting next to me is here to support her nine-year-old granddaughter Jordan and tells me: ‘It gives them confidence, innit?’

Last year, Jordan narrowly missed out on winning the coveted plane ticket to America to compete in the U.S. pageant, so her grandmother forked out £6,000 from her savings to get her there herself — and took Mum along, too.

‘How did she do?’ I ask.

‘Well, she had points scored against her for not wearing tights,’ the grandmother replies. ‘They’re dead strict over there. But she enjoyed it. That’s the main thing.’

This, in fact, seems to be the line everybody around me is spouting. When I ask the other mothers why they’re encouraging their daughters to take part in a beauty pageant, they all come out with platitudes like ‘It makes her happy’ or ‘She’s developing her self-esteem’.

You could almost be forgiven for thinking I’m chatting to a band of mothers at a Brownie convention, not watching the unsettling spectacle of young girls, dressed way beyond their tender years, sashaying their hips and pouting for England.

Of course, I don’t want to blow my cover, so I nod and agree. But inside I’m screaming: ‘Get me out of here!’

The competition starts with the so-called ‘casual wear’ category — a chance for the girls to show the judges an outfit they feel comfortable in and which reflects their personality.

Three contestants — Tempest, Persia and Diamond — totter up to the stage, wiggling their tiny hips and striking poses for the judges. Even if you’ve seen it all before in films such as Little Miss Sunshine about U.S. child pageants, it’s even more shocking in reality. None of girls is dressed ‘casually’. In this warped world, it seems that ‘casual wear’ for a child is an all-in-one Lycra jumpsuit with sequins.

One girl, aged nine, holds the microphone with casual expertise as she tells us all she’d like to be known for ‘promoting natural beauty around the world’. It turns out her mother is the female compere of today’s show.

Another contestant is the daughter of one of the organisers. I am beginning to sense a theme here — particularly when, later in the day, both these girls are awarded first prize in their different age groups.

My daughter is next and I can’t help feeling a rush of nerves because I desperately don’t want her to care about what, I realise, is going to be an inevitable outcome.

Annie strides forward onto the stage. When asked what her favourite television programme is, she replies: ‘Are You Smarter Than A Ten-Year-Old?’ Ha. That’s my girl.

For her talent, she is singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow (we couldn’t quite master baton-twirling in time). Despite the fact she seems to be enjoying all the attention, I confess I’m still worried.

First, about the effect all this is having on her; and secondly, that she might decide she quite enjoys it. So far, she has been clapped and cheered by the audience in just the same way as all the others.

Between each round there’s a mad dash to change outfits, curl hair and apply lip gloss. The room is unbearably hot and tempers fray. I hear one mother coaching her daughter: ‘When they ask who your biggest influence is, say it’s Michelle Mone.’

‘But Mum,’ the girl says, ‘I’ve never heard of her.’

I can almost understand why a little girl would want to spend her Sunday glammed up and pretending to be a model (although Annie is increasingly bored). But why are these parents indulging them in what is, at best, shallow — and, at worst, worryingly sexually precocious?

As the judges retire to consider their verdict, I reflect on what I’ve witnessed today; a contest that is, in my view, exploitative, but also questionably run.

I feel ashamed to have exposed my lovely girl to a world where she has been scrutinised for what she looks like — not as the funny, loveable person she is.

As the trophies are handed out and Annie, who has come last, is left standing alone on the stage, looking awkward, I feel like the biggest loser of all.

Of course Annie wasn’t expecting to win — but what 10-year-old girl wants to feel she hasn’t made the grade because her dress isn’t sparkly enough or her hair done quite right?

Then she winks at me and I know — thank goodness — that she couldn’t care less.

It’s the other little girls — and particularly the winner, who will doubtless go on to a wearying array of further such pageants — who I feel really sorry for.

British man jailed for seven years after sexually abusing young girls in Cambodia

A Cambodian court has convicted a British man of sexually abusing two girls and sentenced him to seven years in prison.

Matthew Harland, 38, was arrested in May last year at the house he rented in the capital, Phnom Penh. He was found to be living with two girls aged 11 and 12.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Kor Vandy convicted Harland on charges of buying sex from the girls and ordered him to pay each child compensation of two million riel (£300).

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of poverty and poor law enforcement. In recent years police and courts have increasingly targeted sex offenders.

Jail: John Harland (left) arrives at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Cambodia at an earlier hearing

Haiti earthquake children sold by their parents for less than 76p each to traffickers, say Unicef

* Over 76% of Haitians live on £1.50 a day
* Parents forced to sell children to traffickers
* They believe their young will have better life - but most don't

As Haiti continues to slowly rebuild following the earthquake which devastated the Caribbean island in January 2010, it has come to light that helpless children are being trafficked for as little as 76 pence each.

Registering 7.0 on the Moment magnitude scale, the earthquake - which struck on January 12, 2010, near capital city Port-au-Prince - killed between 100,000 and 300,000 people, and displaced well over a million.

Aftershocks were felt for weeks afterwards and, with conditions difficult to build in, there were further complications when there was a cholera outbreak in makeshift camps last year.

Over 76 per cent of the country are living on less that £1.50 a day, and just when you thought that the horror could not be any worse, charity Unicef have found that a number of children - many of whom lost their parents in the tragic earthquake - are been sold for next to nothing.

 Devastation: Men attempt the massive clean up job following the earthquake which killed up to 300,000 people.Displaced: Over one million people lost their homes after the earthquake in January 2010

Vulnerable: Young children in Haiti are being sold by their parents for as little as 76 pence

Traffickers, wanting to cash in on the chaos, have been buying the children off their desperate parents, and some of them are grabbed in neighbouring Dominican Republic while they are scrounging for food.

A small amount of the children might manage to end up in the arms of loving and wealthy western families in Europe and America - who are none the wiser - but most are forced into more sinister jobs, such as prostitution and other criminal activities.

Parents, struggling to even feed - never mind educate - their young ones, are selling them on to the traffickers, who promise to hand their offspring a better chance in life.

Wanting to stop the problem at its source, a number of NGO officials have begun to pretend to be interested buyers, in the hope that they can stamp out the horrific problem.

Brigade de Protection des Mineurs (BPM), a group funded by Unisef and who work with the help of the police, monitor the camps and Haitian borders to look out for children who are vulnerable.

But it is difficult to keep track of all of the children - some of the camps contain over 80,000 families, and many of them do not have any identification.

38-year-old Melissa Nau, who gave birth to five children and suffers from disability, sold four of her young ones for only 50 Haitian gourdes (76 pence) each.

When a trafficker called Jacques offered the money for the four children, aged between four and eight, she made the deal.

While the money she gained lasted but a few months, the children have gone for ever.

Research by the BPM uncovered information that chilled the mother - her children were handed false records and then illegally adopted by European families via an international adoption agency.

A Unicef spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: 'Well-meaning parents in the U.S. and Europe have no idea that children are being kidnapped, stolen and bought from the displacement camps of Port-au-Prince.'

BPM officer Françoise Moise revealed that trafficking had been a long-term issue in Haiti but has grown increasingly worse in the last year.

Even before the earthquake, every year almost 2,000 Haitian children were kidnapped or trafficked. Now the figure is believed to have quadrupled.

'Since the earthquake in 2010, rates of trafficking into the Dominican Republic have increased incredibly and that is the reason why we are here,' the 46-year-old told the Telegraph.

'People are coming into the camps posing as NGOs, and foreigners that have come to help Haiti.

'They also pose as Haitians living abroad coming to help and sometimes even Haitians living here, pretending to be members of their family.

'Most of the children that are trafficked into the Dominican Republic have fallen victims of prostitution or these children are adopted illegally.

'Whether at the airport, or the border, or the camps, we are trying to stop child trafficking from happening at all.'

The BPM stop cars at the borders of Haiti and check the travel documents of those under 18 years of age.

'The most difficult thing for us is when they have false documents for the children to cross the border because we don’t have the means of verifying whether these documents are fake or real,' Dieudonne Barnave, a BPM official, told the Telegraph.

Since last April the BPM has screened 7,000 children passing through the border and of those, 1,400 were found not to have the right paperwork.

In all, there have been 35 trafficking-related arrests but under current legislation in Haiti, there is no law against it.

 Help: Unicef and affiliate Brigade de Protection des Mineurs are trying to look after as many vulnerable children as possible

 Helpless: A child is saved by rescuers following the earthquake (left) and another gets used to life in a camp

Mother shot twice with a Taser after she was arrested for leaving baby in car to go to tanning salon

 Arrest: Ashley Agerenza, 19, is accused of leaving her seven-month-old daughter in the back of her car while she went to a tanning salon

A woman had to be shot with a Taser twice after she was arrested for leaving her seven-month-old daughter in her car while she went to a tanning salon.

Ashley Agerenza, 19, has been charged with child abuse, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer after an incident outside Extreme Tan and Smoothies in St Petersburg, Florida.



Police said she first took the child inside the salon, but was told she could not leave the baby while she had a tanning session.

She then took the child back out to her car, strapped her into the car seat and turned on the engine, before returning to the salon.

A witness called police after seeing the baby abandoned. The responding officer found the baby had almost pushed herself out of the seat and had been sick all over herself.

When confronted, Agerenza attacked the officer and was shot twice with a Taser before being arrested.

The baby was not harmed.

A post on Agerenza's Facebook page read: 'Wit my lil mama then i might go out for the first time yay! dk if I can leave her tho...

Man, 24, arrested for paedophilia after girl, 12, gives birth to baby

A 12-year-old schoolgirl has given birth in Romania while the baby girl's 24-year-old father is being held on paedophile charges, say police.

The youngster, Claudia Feraru, had managed to keep her pregnancy secret from her parents in Bucharest for six months before confessing.

Her father, Sorin, said she had been scared 'like any girl who hides something from her parents' before the birth on Wednesday.

A street view of Bucharest, where a 12-year-old girl has given birth

' We know who the father is, but we haven't decided what to do with him.

'We have other priorities, to raise the baby for one. We're going to be her parents.'

She delivered the 6lb baby by caesarean and is said to be making a good recovery.

Under Romanian law, having consensual sex with someone under age 14 is classified as child abuse.

Cases of very young mothers are not all that rare in Romania, with most pregnancies registered in Roma/Gypsy communities and in poor families.

In November last year, a girl from Bucharest aged just ten gave birth to a baby in Jerez, southern Spain.

Strangely, a Romanian woman is believed to be the world's oldest woman to give birth, at age 66.

Albino boy killed in Burundi, witchcraft suspected

A twelve-year old albino boy was killed late yesterday by armed men in the central
Burundi district of Kiganda in what authorities suspect could be linked to witchcraft.

Albino hunters kill their victims and use their blood and body parts for potions. Witchdoctors tell their clients that the body parts will bring them luck in love, life and business.

“The twelve-year-old albino was killed by four men with guns and knives. They cut off his left hand and fled away with it,” Kiganda administrator Joseph Ntahuga, told Reuters today.

Ntahuga, a government official in the district 80 km from the capital Bujumbura, said the victim had two other albino siblings.

The murder brings to 14 the number of albinos killed in the tiny central African country since 2008.

The coffee producing nation of 8 million people has around 500 albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair.

Burundian authorities believe the killings are carried out local residents who work with witchdoctors in neighbouring Tanzania, where 53 albinos have been killed since 2007 for their body parts, which are sold for use in witchcraft. There are around 170,000 albinos living in Tanzania.



Kazungu Kassim, head of the national association of albinos, says albino killings continue in Burundi because severe punishment is not taken against the perpetrators.

“The solution is to sentence those responsible for albino killings to hang as it is done in Tanzania,” he said.

A man has been sentenced death by hanging for killing a five-year-old albino girl in Tanzania by hacking off her legs with a machete and then drinking her blood.

Religious ritual believed to be behind death of girl who was found with her heart cut out and other organs strewn round home

Neighbours of a mother arrested after her four-year-old daughter was killed as an apparent religious offering told how they heard screams from the family's flat.

Nusayba Bharuchi's corpse was found stabbed to death in the kitchen with her heart and other organs cut out and strewn around her flat and lying next to her mother, Shayna.

The 35-year-old woman was allegedly chanting verses of the Koran as her daughter's disembowelled corpse lay next to her in the home in Clapton, East London.

Crime scene: Shayna Bharuchi, 35, was allegedly sitting in a her kitchen chanting verses of the Koran as her daughter Nusayba's disembowelled corpse lay next to her.

The woman, believed to be from Somalia, had her MP3 on full blast as she listened to the Muslim holy book.

The mother, who is understood to have two teenage children of 14 and 16, has since been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and is in a secure unit as police yesterday continued to guard the third-floor premises on the estate.

The gruesome scene was discovered by the girl's father, Jerome Negney, when he arrived home to the flat on Thursday to find his partner clutching a kitchen knife.

The man, believed to be a Muslim convert, dialled 999 and paramedics pronounced the girl dead at the scene. Police said next of kin have been informed.

One elderly neighbour said last night: 'Nobody knew her very well but the children seemed very nice. However I used to be awoken by terrible screaming of a woman's voice in the middle of the night which was a regular occurence.

'Sometimes the screams would last for about 10 minutes.'

Another neighbour, who lives in the downstairs flat and asked not to be named, said: 'I was feeding my daughter her lunch at about 3pm and suddenly heard horrific screaming. It is shocking and so upsetting.'

He said the couple have lived in the flat for about a year.

A post-mortem examination will take place on Saturday at Poplar mortuary in east London.

The Metropolitan Police's Child Abuse Investigation Command is leading the murder inquiry. They are not believed to be looking for anybody else.

Yesterday another shocked resident, a mum in her 30s, said the mother always wore a black headscarf with a veil.

She added: 'Usually you could only see her eyes.

'I often heard shouting coming from the flat as she and a man argued.

'Their quarrels would become very heated.'

Parents horrified as children run up massive bills Smurfing the web

Huge bills: Thousands of parents have downloaded the games assuming because they're free to download, they're free to play

Paying the cost: Kelly Rummelhart had an unexpected bill after four-year-old son Sawyer played The Smurfs' Village

Computer giant Apple has come under fire for introducing ‘hidden and underhand’ charges into children’s games which many parents thought were free to play.

The US firm has made millions of pounds by developing a new generation of games to play on gadgets such as the iPad and iPhone.

Thousands of British parents have downloaded the games, assuming that because they are free to download they are free to play.

But they have been horrified to discover that children have run up huge bills by buying credits which allow them to progress faster and farther through the game.

The offending games, which include The Smurfs’ Village, Zombie Farm and Tap Zoo, all operate along similar lines and encourage players to build up a virtual community.





Anyone taking part can progress farther and faster if they buy credits as they go along.

In theory, purchases can only be made if the person playing the game enters a password.

But many have discovered to their cost that if they enter the password, for whatever reason, and hand the device to the child within 15 minutes, he or she can make payments without re-entering the password.

Angry parents say Apple failed to provide any advance warning of the payments at the time of download and say that young children do not understand the few notices about payments which do crop up as they play the games.

Adam Williams, of consumer watchdog Which? Mobile, said: ‘It is pretty underhand to have these extra charges in games that are aimed at children.’

One of the most lucrative games is The Smurfs’ Village, which was only introduced last month but which has already topped the download charts.

Players build a village for the Smurfs. To progress through the game they buy credits called Smurfberries, sold in quantities at prices ranging from £5.99 to £59.99.

At the start of the game players are told that it is free to play but there is an option to purchase extra credits.

There is no other reference to charges until players click on to the shop to make their purchases.

One furious father in London, who asked not to be named, has complained to Apple after his daughter ran up a bill of £90.

He said: ‘The first we knew about it was when my wife looked at her credit card bill and saw that she was being charged just under £90 by the Apple Store.

'At first we couldn’t work out what the charges were for. It only became clear when we spoke to our nine-year-old daughter.

‘She had run up the charges by buying extra Smurfberries. She thought she was just playing the game in the normal way and she had no idea she was spending any money.

'Clearly, Apple should have warned parents in advance about the charges and they should refund any bills run up in this way.’

Another British father vented his fury online after his child ran up a £110 bill.

He wrote: ‘The reason this game is out-grossing its rivals is because it is a rip-off and a fraud.’

In the US Kelly Rummelhart, 36, from California, ended up with a credit-card bill for $66 (£42) after her four-year-old son Sawyer used her iPad to play The Smurfs’ Village.

She said: ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would be charging things on it.’

Capcom, which publishes The Smurfs’ Village, has pledged to increase the number of warnings in the game.

Zombie Farm, where players build up an army of warring zombies, is published by the California-based firm The Playforge.

But some players, who are encouraged to buy brain food in the advanced stages, have described it as a con.

A spokesman for The Playforge insisted that it was possible to play the game without making any additional purchases.

There has been similar criticism of Tap Zoo, in which players build up a zoo.

A spokesman for Apple said: ‘A password is required to purchase any goods on the App Store, including using in-app purchases.

'And parents can use our parental control settings to restrict app downloading and turn off in-app purchasing.’

PocketGems, the publisher of Tap Zoo, and Capcom, were unavailable for comment

Mother sues Tyra Bank's show for $3m after her daughter, 15, was flown to New York to appear in episode on sex addiction

Chat show host Tyra Banks is being sued for $3million (£2million) by the mother of a teenage girl who appeared on her show to talk about sex addiction.

Beverley McClendon has filed a lawsuit against the former model for allowing her 15-year-old daughter Jewel to appear without her permission.

She claims her daughter was paid to fly to New York alone and take part in the studio discussion on teen sex addiction.

Lawsuit: Beverley McClendon is suing The Tyra Banks Show after she claimed it flew her daughter to New York to appear on a show about teenage sex addiction

McClendon, a social worker, said she had no idea her daughter was appearing on the show and disputed that she was a 'sex addict'.

In the lawsuit McClendon claims by allowing her daughter to talk about her sex addiction she had now made her vulnerable.

'This show was undoubtedly watched by sexual deviants, perverts and paedophiles alike,' McClendon said.

In a 14-page lawsuit filed in Atlanta, Georgia, McClendon said her daughter had answered an 'open call' on The Tyra Banks show webpage for teens to talk about sex addiction.

The lawsuit says producers of the show arranged a flight from Atlanta to New York for the teen and put her up in a hotel prior to her appearance in November 2009.

McClendon said she had no idea where her daughter was and filed a missing person's report with the police.

As well as seeking $3m in damages she has also demanded that the clip featuring her daughter is removed from the show's website and YouTube.

McClendon said the only reason her daughter was on the show was to boost ratings.

'The sole intent of the Defendants was to exploit the minor to increase ratings. The tag for the show advertised "15-year-old-sex addict".'

McClendon claims her daughter has never been diagnosed as a sex addict.

'The defendants actions were fraudulent, showed a wantonness and evidenced an entire want of care which raises a presumption of conscious indifference to the consequences of their actions.'

The lawsuit also claims that producers of the show knew the teenager did not have parental permission to appear on the popular TV show.

In the U.S. parents of minors have to sign a release form allowing their appearance on TV shows.

McClendon has asked for a jury trial to decide on the $3m demand for damages.

As well as Banks, the show's producers are named in the lawsuit.

Former catwalk model Tyra, 36, has established herself as one of the most popular daytime chat show hosts.

She is also the host and creator of the reality show 'America's Next Top Model'.